Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers) Read Free

sneak
it in, anyway. Colin was becoming well-known for drinking too much and getting
into trouble. When he dated Carly over the summer, he’d made a bunch of
vodka-fueled bad choices, including cheating on her at a pool party.
    “Nice,” I said drily. “And maybe when you sober up, you won’t
be such an ass.”
    This earned me a humorless snort as he drained whatever was in
his plastic cup. His gaze slid down the front of me again as if he was having
trouble keeping his attention on my face. My cheeks grew warm at his blatant
gaze.
    “Who was that guy you were talking to?”
    I blinked. “None of your business.”
    “Your boyfriend?”
    “Again, none of your business.”
    He was being very confrontational tonight, which made me sad.
Colin was actually a really nice guy, despite some of the more epic mistakes
he’d made in the past. And I knew I’d hurt him last week, so I wouldn’t hold
this particular discussion against him in the future. This time, anyway.
    Walk away, I told myself. But my
feet refused to move. I fought my rising hunger with every ounce of strength I
had. The more I fought, the colder I got until goose bumps broke out over my
bare arms and I shivered, despite the club being at least eighty degrees. The
cold was a side effect of not having a soul.
    Colin leaned closer, which only made things worse. I didn’t
smell the vodka on his breath anymore; what I smelled was warm, tempting and
entirely edible. Less so than Bishop, but still more than anyone else in this
club right now.
    “Heard from Carly?” he asked.
    That woke me up like a glass of cold water thrown in my
face.
    Colin, like almost everyone else, believed Carly had run away
with a secret boyfriend and was off having a misguided, but romantic
adventure.
    “No,” I said softly. My eyes began to burn.
    He snorted again. It was an unpleasant, mocking sound. “Look at
you, all misty over Carly taking off with some guy. Feeling abandoned by your
BFF? Poor Sam. Boo hoo.”
    I gave him a careful look. “I know I hurt you—”
    “Hurt me?” he scoffed. “Please. I’m over it.”
    “Yeah, sure you are.” I studied him, uncertain how to deal with
this problem. “Look, Colin, I’m sorry. Really. But it’s for the best. You don’t
need to be near me right now. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you backed off
before my friend gets back.”
    “Jealous, is he?”
    I’d had more than enough of this conversation and I needed him
to step away from me now. “Leave me alone, Colin. I don’t like you. At all. Get
it through your head, okay?”
    I forced myself to look at the dance floor again.
    “You’re such a liar.” His words slurred together, heavy with
enough underlying pain to make me flinch. “Everything that comes out of your
mouth is a damn lie. You liked me. I know you did. I saw it in your eyes. You
think you can just walk away from something like that? That I’d let you?”
    Let me? “I think you need to
go—”
    But before I could say another word, Colin grabbed hold of me
and crushed his mouth against mine.

Chapter 2
    No!
    I tried to pull away from him, to shove against his chest as
hard as I could.
    But it was too late. The hunger that had swirled around me the
entire time I’d been at Crave, which had intensified to an impossible to ignore
level when Bishop was close to me, that waited patiently while Colin blurted out
what was on his mind—
    It spilled over.
    The pounding dance music muted. The sparkling lights faded. The
club disappeared. My rational thinking ceased. And my hunger took over.
    This wasn’t a kiss with a drunk boy who liked me and was mad I
didn’t like him in return. This was about feeding—that part of me that was
missing a soul and was constantly trying to devour everyone else’s.
    It was what I feared the most. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.
But that was exactly what I was doing.
    Feeding on Colin was so natural for me. In this mindless state,
it was the most natural thing in the